The Bright Lights Book Project: A Move to a New Location
Contributed by Alys Culhane
Stories continue to beget stories, and the latest Bright Lights Book Project story is that we’ve moved to a new location. We previously occupied the The Church of the Covenant/Meeting House on South Bailey Street. We now occupy the former banquet room of the Historic Eagle Hotel.
We’d been at the Bailey Street address for two years. We’d been looking for a new home for two years. Nothing had, as of May 1, 2023, materialized. The ongoing search was made more difficult than it might have been because we had very stringent criteria.
We wanted to remain in the Palmer core area, and for a variety of reasons. The Meeting House was ideal location. It was central to the Palmer Post Office, U-Haul Storage, and our Palmer-based distribution sites, one of which is the ever popular Bugge Street playground/little library. Taking up residence in the Meeting House also made us aware of the importance of community as this relates to our mission, which is to get books into the hands of appreciative readers. I foresaw that our moving out of Palmer would distance us from much-valued book-related conversations.
We had other space-related criteria. The Meeting House space could no longer accommodate the increasing number of books. I’d recently attended the Science of Reading Symposium in Anchorage. This opened many doors for us, one of which was donation related. Educators have continued to gift us with books from their school libraries.
Consequently, our growing non-profit’s wish list included more square footage, single floor occupancy, easy access (no stairs), and a private entrance.
We found what now suits our purpose in a seemingly serendipitous fashion. On one of Palmer’s uncharacteristically sunny, warm days, BLBP Board President Robert Wallace and BLBP Project Manager Pete Praetorius accompanied me on the Palmer distribution route, which includes a dozen bookcases.
We stocked the Eagle Hotel bookcase, and then took a moment to talk to building owner Atli Dobrova, who showed space he had for lease, this being the banquet room. In seeing the huge, open, clean space, a smile crossed Wallace’s face. Pete, who still had his heart set on acquiring land and building a combination literacy/distribution center, remained dubious. However, he agreed with Robert and me that the spacious room fit all our criteria and then some. The room included wall space for a supposedly infinite number of bookcases, a corner office area, and an area for literacy-related workshops and classes.
We negotiated a lease and shortly thereafter began what I dubbed the cross-town move. I boxed up books in preparation for their five-block journey. I also put out a call to volunteers, who I hoped would assist in moving what seemed like an infinite number of boxes of books.
I became increasingly more anxious as moving day approached, for my call for volunteers seemed to have gone unheeded. It looked like we’d have three shleppers, me, Wallace, and Melina Sevigny, our past BLBP Board President. I lost sleep envisioning it, at least one day of heavy lifting, with perhaps several more to follow.
Much to my surprise, volunteers emerged from under the cloud cover on the day of the scheduled move. United Way Jill of all Trades, Michele Harmeling, had previously contacted two volunteers, Marvilie and Avie, who met up with me in the U-Haul lobby. And Rebekah Dungan, who is member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had contacted eight Mormon elders, who met up with Robert in the parking lot.
The move went quickly, and there were no glitches. Marvilie, Avie, and I drove over the Meeting House, where we met up with Melina. Together, we twice loaded boxes of books into the TOTE Maritime van, and twice unloaded them at the Eagle Hotel. And Robert and the elders loaded up the U-Haul rental van and unloaded it at the Eagle Hotel.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, three-quarters of the BLBP books had been safely stowed in the central portion of the room. Robert, Melina, and Melina’s two children and I celebrated this accomplishment by ordering lunch at the Sunrise Grill, which is adjacent to the BLBP distribution area.
I was pleased with what, after months of planning, was a major accomplishment.However, I reminded myself that there is still work to be done. Pete will soon be putting up new shelves for boxes of books. And BLBP volunteers will, on a daily basis, continue to salvage, sort, clean, catalogue, and distribute books, locally, state-wide, and nationally.
Alys Culhane is the Executive Director of the Bright Lights Book Project. If you’re interested in doing volunteer work or have books you’d like to donate to the project, contact her at director@brightlightsbookproject.org.
